A community news source for residents of the HarriOak neighborhood in Oakland, CA.

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Lake Merritt's fountains need our help

Lake Merritt lovers may have noticed that all the fountains have been turned off.Four of the motors have failed and are out of warranty. A replacement motor is broken.Three of the four fountains are owned by the Lake Merritt Institute, which is strugglingto come up with the $7,000 it needs to replace the motors. Let's help!

Please send donations, whether they are large or small, to the Lake MerrittInstitute, 568 Bellevue Avenue, Oakland, CA 94610. The institute is a non-profit, 501C3 corporation, so donations are deductible to the extentof the law.

Below is an excerpt of a letter that the Institute's Dr. Richard Bailey sent to the Adams Point Action Council, which is spearheading this fund drive.

"Cheers: That is great! We could certainly use this kind of help. Toanswer your questions:

"Funds for the aeration fountains should be sent to: The Lake MerrittInstitute, 568 Bellevue Avenue, Oakland, CA 94610. We are a non-profit, 501C3 corporation, so donations are deductible to the extentof the law.

"Functions: Each fountain aerates (provides oxygen) to at least oneacre of water around it. They also mix the top and bottom layers ofwater, and - to most people - are aesthetically pleasing.These aeration fountains are important to the Lake because all lifedepends on ample oxygen. As you may know, in 1998 the US EPA listedLake Merritt as an impaired body of water due to low oxygen. The fountains provide oxygen in areas of the lake where it is needed the most."Why they failed: Essentially the motors are several years old andfour of them have failed since July. At Glen Echo, the mechanicalseal failed; at the Embarcadero, the bearing is bad and the bottomcap has rusted off; at the Bandstand, the motor has a short circuit.Our spare motor has a locked armature. The warranties (typically 2years) on all four have expired. Capacitors, circuit breakers,splices, and underwater cables also fail from time to time.Failure is typically related to salt water corrosion, electrolysis,the fact that they run 24/7 and the growths of barnacles, mussels,bryozoans, tubeworms and sea squirts that clog the intake screens,motor tubes and everything else.

"Replacement costs for all four total to more than $7,000. We havesome funds promised but not enough. Shipping, packing and laborcosts for installation and maintenance are also expensive.We expect to get the Embarcadero unit back on line next week, but theothers will take longer.

"The city owns one of the fountains and we will be using some citymoney. But the other three are owned by the Institute, which doesthe maintenance on all four. The city pays the electricity costs.